Let Embers Fall

Summary: I fight for my country because it demands such of me. Only through the crucible of war can I emerge to regain my life and lay claim to peace and solitude. But the cost! Sweet gods the cost.

Let Embers Fall

Here I stand, looking over the village of my birth. Grey clouds boil above, casting the land in
an eerie darkness. The sun is hidden
from me. Or I, it.

I can see the house I was born in across the valley
from the hill I stand on. It lies hard
against the river that runs through this valley. The hill I am on is known as Sentry Mount. It is the tallest of a series of hills that
runs from the northeast to the southwest on this side of the river. The far side of the river, where the house is, has no hills to
speak of. It is low farm land and very
fertile.

The river dumps into a small
lake to the southwest. I look to my left
but I cannot see the lake from Sentry Mount. I know it’s there, I used to fish in it as a
child with my dad and brother.

I can see a woman in the yard of the house that used
to be mine. Would she remember me? The chickens in the yard are flapping around
her skirts and she is swatting at them to both get them away from her and keep
them out of the house.

Can I hear her voice on the wind?

I hated feeding those chickens with their incessant
flapping.

A just-roused child opens the door, blond curls
falling around her face in sleepy waves, and she holds the door open for her mom
as the older woman hustles to be inside.
I hadn’t known mom was expecting again.
I didn’t know I had a little sister.

The wind whips around my cloak and the cold steel of
my halberd presses against my hip and weighs me down. It is heavy.
Many things are.

I can see the irrigation system I spent so many
summers working on as a child. I see the
youth of today working on the same trenches.
They are, no doubt, cursing the leaves, sticks, and sundry debris that
clog the system after a rain storm. I make a mental note about the condition of
the fields below following the two days of torrential downpour that ended,
hopefully, earlier last night. At least
it hasn’t rained since then. The clouds still look pregnant and ready to
burst though.

The wind cries out as it whistles through the trees.

I haven't been back to this valley in nearly ten
years. A lot can happen in ten
years. Lives change. The Empire’s press gangs had claimed me from
the fields and sent me to fight people I didn't know, under a sun that burned
too bright; too hot. I had been strong
and clever and had a very committed desire to stay alive. I still have those qualities.

I had been beaten by the press gang thugs the first time I countermanded my
superior’s orders. But not so harshly as the offense warranted since I
had saved my unit and plugged a gaping hole in the line that my superior was
threatening to widen by moving us the way he planned. We would have been flanked and buried by the
cavalry charge. Instead we anchored our
pikes in the dust and rocks of the desert and broke the charge. I was promoted after the beating.

My superior was hanged.

The Empire was like that. Service, unwavering, was demanded and
rewarded. Negligence was punished and
incompetence was punished harshly. I was
advised in my promotion that I should be far more careful in changing battle
plans. Bring up ideas and concerns in
planning, they told me, and run changes through the chain of command during the
battle.

Six weeks later I was beaten again for “operational
insubordination” that had, for a second time, spared my troopers a brutal
butcher’s bill. It had also saved the life of a fellow squad commander. The fellow's father was in command of the unit we fought with.

Luck and fortune favor the prepared … which I wasn’t
… but it didn’t hurt my cause, and that’s a fact.

Ten years later and I am running an entire Army for
the Empire. More than 5,000 men, supply
trains, siege engines (though, in truth, I will build what I need on site when
I see what I have to defeat with my own eyes).

Carefully though, very carefully because the Empire
is strong and I am their man.

My hands are clasped behind my back, wind whipping
my red trimmed black dress coat around my waist and tugging at the button
holding it closed. It is cold and
foreboding, like the clouds. I stare at
the valley I called home. The rain would
hold.

“Burn it, Colonel; every house, every barn, every
hut and hovel.” I stop and turn to face
my second, “I don’t want anything alive in that valley when the sun sets except
my troopers.” I drill a hole in him with
my gaze so that he fully comprehends the intensity of my command.

He blinked at me, “Livestock?”

“Burn it all, Colonel.” I look back at the village I grew up in; the
struggles of the past belong in the past.

The Colonel raises a flag in a series of motions to
signal the start of the attack.

The hoof beats of the cavalry charge echo across the
valley and up the hill to wail at my feet.
They pound into my soul as I stare at the village I grew up in, the
struggles of the past, the fighting and scrapping for every morsel of food.

For dignity.

For Pride.

The fires taking root below burn with a chillness that I feel twisting through me.

“Dismissed,
Colonel.” It is coldly said, like the
day.

Write a Review
Did you enjoy my story? Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks,
Bushkill

bebebishop:
My first written review! Thorn and Kairi are 2 wolves who have been betrayed by their mates. They choose to be together and all kinds of drama starts. I love Thorn and Kairi's strength and integrity. There is so much going on with her ex mate and then HIS ex mate. And yet, they stand strong an...

mariaocasio161718:
I want more! This story seemed like it just started. It's just the beginning of her new life and I wanted just a little more just to see her happy. And to see her fined out he is a king and she is a queen...lol and his family's reaction to him getting married all that stuff.

Identitycrisis:
I was so hooked to this book, its so good that im planing to buy the series on amazon just to read it. This author definitely deserve more than applause. I might even reread it when i get the rest of the series.

Rosalyn Morello:
Please update. I really love your story. You should keep writing. Your story is wonderful. So please continue this lovely story. Some people are getting mad and using profane language in the comments sections because you haven't updated for a while.

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